RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.What Does the Paris Climate Agreement Say about Waste?
By Eric Lombardi, Waste 360.
The world has been heatedly debating the significance of the Paris climate agreement since it was published in December. Some see it as a historic moment of global cooperation while others call it a landmark failure to hold countries truly accountable for their climate impacts and nothing more than empty words. Whatever one thinks, it does appear to be true what the Guardian newspaper said in the U.K., “The whole world agreed, we need to stop delaying and start getting serious about preventing a climate crisis. We’ve turned the corner; climate denial is no longer being taken seriously.”
Waste (finally) mattered in Paris
Skim through the official Paris Agreement and you won’t find the word “waste” even mentioned. But if you had tuned into the side rooms, the street protests, formal meetings and the negotiations where the real work was being done to figure out how we’re going to actually meet the Paris goals and you would find the subjects of recycling, composting, minimizing waste and the concept of Zero Waste emerged as priority solutions for a carbon-free future.
Port Of Stockton Proposes Project To Harvest Hyacinth For Biogas
By Rich Ibarra, Capital Public Radio.
Water hyacinth has been the scourge of the Delta in recent years, but by this summer it could be providing the power to city lights. A pilot project is in the works to harvest it for biogas.
Water hyacinth clogs rivers and sloughs in the Delta trapping boats in the marina by mid-summer and fall.
Port of Stockton Environmental Manager Jeff Wingfield says the port is proposing a pilot project to harvest the hyacinth and convert it into methane to power a cogeneration plant.
US Waste to Energy Firm Blue Sphere Secures Nearly $2m
By Ben Messenger, Waste Management World.
Blue Sphere Corp. (OTCQB: BLSP) a waste to energy developer based in North Carolina, has closed on a private equity investment round with three of its current shareholders worth $1.925 million through the sale of common stock and warrants.
The company explained the Securities (Stocks and Warrents) were purchased at a price per share equal to the closing price for Blue Sphere's Common Stock as of February 12, 2016, or $0.055 per share.
Ontario promises to reveal cap-and-trade plan details within weeks
By The Canadian Press, via CBC News.
Ontario's Liberal government is promising all the details of its cap-and-trade plan to put a price on carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions will soon be public.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray says the government is wrapping up consultations with manufacturers and large polluters on what he admits is a very complex design for the cap-and-trade initiative.
Murray says there will legislation and a regulation that will spell out details of the plan, which will impose pollution limits on companies but allow them to buy credits if they exceed their limit or sell their credits to other polluters if they're under.
Capturing renewable natural gas from manure
By PorkNetworkNews.
A Missouri project, believed to be one of the largest and most comprehensive livestock manure-to-energy projects of its type is currently underway. The project efficiently treats waste from approximately 2 million hogs.
Covers over swine lagoons capture and channel valuable gasses that are by-products of the wastewater treatment facilities on the farms. The collected gas is sent to equipment for scrubbing and cleaning, and then it is compressed into natural gas. The bio-solids (manure) are broken down to basic elements, making the nutrients easily available to plants in the form of fertilizer.
The benefit of this system is not limited to the creation of natural gas and fertilizer; it also reduces the carbon footprint of the facilities. In addition, the rainwater that falls upon the covers is collected, making it available for irrigation and other uses on the farms. Rainwater capture reduces trucking and overall labor costs of farm operations.
McCarthy addresses RFS, role of biomass in CPP during hearing
By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine.
On Feb. 11, the House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing on U.S. EPA policies that impact the rural economy. The renewable fuel standard (RFS) and Clean Power Plan were among the programs discussed during the nearly three-hour event.
In her testimony, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said that the agency has taken steps to improve implementation of the RFS and continues to approve new agricultural feedstocks, increasing the number of pathways that biofuel producers may use to qualify their biofuel under the program. “We improved the quality, transparency, and efficiency of our petition review process for new biofuel pathways, clarified qualifying biofuels, and conducted lifecycle analyses on several new feedstocks,” she said. “The EPA remains committed to the RFS program and meeting Congress’s intent to responsibly grow renewable fuels over time.”
Responding to several questions posed during the hearing, McCarthy stressed that the EPA intends to keep on track with its future RFS rulemaking. While not specifically addressed by McCarthy during the hearing, the EPA’s Regulatory Development and Retrospective Review Tracker currently states the agency initiated rulemaking for the 2017 RFS standards and 2018 standards for biomass-based diesel in August, with a notice of proposed rulemaking expected to be published in the Federal Register in June.
Study Ties U.S. to Spike in Global Methane Emissions
By Bobby Magill, ClimateCentral.org.
There was a huge global spike in one of the most potent greenhouse gases driving climate change over the last decade, and the U.S. may be the biggest culprit, according a new Harvard University study.
The United States alone could be responsible for between 30 percent and 60 percent of the global growth in human-caused atmospheric methane emissions since 2002 because of a 30 percent spike in methane emissions across the country, the study says.
1,000 tonnes of food wasted in Dubai to be used to produce power
Dubai Municipality eyes biogas plant to re-use waste food for energy
By Mariam M. Al Serkal, Gulf News.
Food. Glorious Food! And it's not just Broadway singing.
Now, Dubai’s landfills are singing to the tune of 1,000 tonnes of food waste per day, according to a senior municipality official on Tuesday.
The plan is to put those tonnes of discarded food to good use by turning them into biofuel.
Food waste is not limited to residential homes: Hotels, catering companies and schools also generate food waste.
17 governors to work together on clean energy
By Kyle Feldscher, Washington Examiner
The governors of 17 states signed an agreement to promote clean energy, clean transportation, more modern electrical grids and to plan for a clean energy future.
The Governor's Accord for a New Energy Future was signed by a bipartisan coalition of governors representing 127 million people Tuesday afternoon. Under the agreement, the governors pledge to diversify their energy sources and expand their commitments to clean energy, modernizing their infrastructure and working toward securing a stronger national energy future.
"We recognize that now is the time to embrace a bold vision of the nation's energy future," the accord states. "And to do so, states are once again poised to lead. We join together, despite unique opportunities and challenges in each state, to embrace a shared vision of this future."
What Antonin Scalia's death means for Obama's climate plans
By Brad Plumer, Vox Media, Inc.
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will have countless political and policy ramifications. But here's a big one: President Obama's plan to tackle global warming faces considerably less legal peril than it did just three days ago.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court surprised everyone by voting 5-4 to issue a stay and postpone implementation of Obama's Clean Power Plan — a major EPA rule to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from the electricity sector. The Court hasn't yet decided on the rule's legality, but the stay suggested that the five conservative justices — Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Kennedy — were inclined to strike it down. Analysts frettedthat doing so could, in turn, cause the international climate deal forged at Paris to unravel.
Now, everything has changed with Scalia's passing and the Supreme Court split 4-4 between conservatives and liberals. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit may end up playing a much bigger role in deciding the regulation's legal fate. That's fairly good news for Obama — although his climate plans aren't safe just yet.
Don’t miss an update—join our weekly newsletter below.